A blog about exploring life and my random thoughts.

Archive for the ‘personal’ Category

Ok….so I started this blog and my 101 in 1001 project before PA school started. Let me clue you in to how naive that was! I have found myself with little to no time to call my own. I am enjoying school and the challenge immensely but it has left me neglecting lots of other areas of my life.

I am writing tonight (after finishing a test and a paper and before moving on to more studying) to say that I must put my 101 in 1001 on hold in order to do it justice. I know life will always be busy but I am hoping and praying that it won’t be 21 credits of grad school busy again for a long, long time. I will try to pop in an update everyone from time to time but I am sorry to say, please don’t expect much for the next few months. Thank you all for even stopping by in the first place and I hope to be back on here again in less than 3 months :-p

August was a whirlwind!! I did manage to get a few things done though 🙂 As promised, here’s the update.

I’ll try to keep track of these as follows: In Progress, Complete, Fail

1. Take at least one yoga class
2. Learn how to cook 5 new dishes
3. Bake my own bread 6 times
4. Walk the distance of the Appalachian trail
5. Graduate from my master’s program – Started August 24th!
6. Write a letter to 3 friends for no reason
7. Read 10 books for fun – 5 down!
8. Go to 3 movies by myself (I never do this)
9. Go to at least one concert
10. Write a blog post at least twice a month every month – This is going to get harder with school going.
11. Try to grow my own indoor herb garden – We have 4 herbs in the apartment!
12. Update my progress on my 101 in 1001 every month
13. Be active for 30 minutes at least 3 days a week
14. Patronize local vendors at least 6 times a year – Ok so this one was obviously MUCH easier than I thought it might be.
15. Visit the Joslyn Art Museum
16. Make my own yogurt
17. Lose 15% of my starting body weight – Down 3%!!
18. Go to 10 local restaurants I haven’t yet tried – 3 so far: Went to Urban Wine this month
19. Participate in one “walk” (eg. Crop Walk, Walk for a Cure, etc)
20. Donate blood 6 times
21. Create a recipe & post it on my blog
22. Spend 6 weekends without going online
23. Find a religious community I feel comfortable with
24. Attend that community every Sunday for a month
25. Track all my expenses for 2 months
26. Create a budget that reduces my current expenses and increases my savings
27. Buy an article of clothing or an accessory in a color I never normally would
28. Have a picnic
29. Spend 15 minutes in nature outside the city doing nothing but listening
30. Organize my digital world. My files are a complete mess!
31. Learn to make 4 new vegetarian or vegan recipes
32. Take the bus instead of the car 10 times
33. Pass on a few things I want and do a Kiva loan
34. Floss. Every day. No excuses. – I was doing so well…a few nights camping out with forgotten floss did me in!
35. Go for one week without complaining
36. Replace one household or toiletries product with a more eco-friendly option
37. Learn how to wax my eyebrows at home (Don’t judge :-p )
38. Make potstickers: see here userealbutter.com

So much has happened this month!! I had an amazing time at home, got 2 new awesome roomies who I’ve had some great adventures with, and started PA school. Ack!! Needless to say, blogging didn’t really happen so much this month.

I was home for 2 weeks for the first time since Christmas and that was just wonderful. How can it not be when you come home to this?

Mmmmmm! Red Cat, good New York style pizza, and wings. What more could a girl ask for? I had a fantastic time with friends and family alike. I came back much recharged and looking forward to seeing them all again : ).

Lots of good times with the new roomies as well. Perused the Old Market hitting up Upstream, Ted and Wally’s, and the pedestrian bridge as well as Barrett’s, Greek Festival, Urban Wine, and Zio’s. Not all in one night of course! It’s been so nice to connect with other girls my own age. I have missed that a lot since undergrad.

Speaking of school, I’ve just started my second full week of PA school. It’s going to be interesting folks!! I sense much less time for blogging in the future. A whole different type of academic atmosphere to adjust to and a whirlwind of a program will make life interesting over the next 2 years. I’m sure there will be more to come on that as it happens.

Well this certainly is a short update. My apologies! I have to get back to class!! However, there will be an update on my 101 in 1001 posted later tonight some time if you are interested. If you have no idea what that means, drop by my post here: https://kfredsmusings.wordpress.com/2009/06/30/101-in-1001/🙂

Hello! I’ve promised to update every month so here is the first one. A few of these have proved easier than I anticipated and others harder. It’s been a fun challenge to myself so far but I’ve barely begun! Also, as a side note about life, I completed my VISTA term of service today. So bittersweet!

I’ll try to keep track of these as follows: In Progress, Complete, Fail

1. Take at least one yoga class
2. Learn how to cook 5 new dishes
3. Bake my own bread 6 times
4. Walk the distance of the Appalachian trail
5. Graduate from my master’s program
6. Write a letter to 3 friends for no reason
7. Read 10 books for fun – Working on it right now!
8. Go to 3 movies by myself (I never do this)
9. Go to at least one concert
10. Write a blog post at least twice a month every month
11. Try to grow my own indoor herb garden
12. Update my progress on my 101 in 1001 every month
13. Be active for 30 minutes at least 3 days a week
14. Patronize local vendors at least 6 times a year – Ok so this one was obviously MUCH easier than I thought it might be.
15. Visit the Joslyn Art Museum
16. Make my own yogurt
17. Lose 15% of my starting body weight – This isn’t going so well yet but it has been on my mind.
18. Go to 10 local restaurants I haven’t yet tried – 3 so far: California Tacos, El Alamo, and Lansky’s
19. Participate in one “walk” (eg. Crop Walk, Walk for a Cure, etc)
20. Donate blood 6 times
21. Create a recipe & post it on my blog
22. Spend 6 weekends without going online
23. Find a religious community I feel comfortable with – Yay!
24. Attend that community every Sunday for a month
25. Track all my expenses for 2 months
26. Create a budget that reduces my current expenses and increases my savings
27. Buy an article of clothing or an accessory in a color I never normally would
28. Have a picnic
29. Spend 15 minutes in nature outside the city doing nothing but listening
30. Organize my digital world. My files are a complete mess!
31. Learn to make 4 new vegetarian or vegan recipes
32. Take the bus instead of the car 10 times
33. Pass on a few things I want and do a Kiva loan
34. Floss. Every day. No excuses.
35. Go for one week without complaining
36. Replace one household or toiletries product with a more eco-friendly option
37. Learn how to wax my eyebrows at home (Don’t judge :-p )
38. Make potstickers: see here userealbutter.com

Imagine my surprise when I looked at the date and realized that while I had started a few drafts, I hadn’t posted a single post this month! That just will not do. Especially as a result of #10.

What a lot of surprises this summer has brought with it. I’ve (finally) purchased a car. I’ve moved (again) into a new apartment. I’ll have 2 new roommates, one whom I’ve never met in person, and school starts so soon! This whole renting and car ownership thing is complicated lol. It probably doesn’t help that I am trying to coordinate bill paying across 2 states and 3 people. I think things will settle down once we are all in the same place. Also, our property manager not returning phone calls or emails isn’t super helpful 😉 But enough about her.

Lots of beginnings and again, an end. My extended VISTA term will be over on Friday. I’ll truly miss my friends and colleagues. I’ve had some amazing opportunities during my time as a VISTA and met wonderful people. I honestly think I will be a little lost at first. When people ask me what I do, I know my first reflex will be to say “I’m an AmeriCorps*VISTA.” I never thought it would be such a cool time for me. I have a feeling that once you are a VISTA, you are a VISTA forever. I think it’s just one of those things. You (hopefully) never forget the lessons you learned.

I have read a lot of blogs lately talking about doing 101 things in 1001 days. It’s a way of creating long term goals and sticking to them. You can read more about it here. I thought it seemed like an intriguing idea so I am going to attempt my own. Now there are many reasons I haven’t filled in the entire list and I realize many people might tell me this defeats the purpose. However, I am starting a graduate program in the fall and have no idea what my time constraints may be so I am going to leave some of the list blank so I don’t end up with ridiculous goals that I could never hope to achieve.

I will be starting my 1001 days on Wednesday, July 1, 2009. This puts my end date on Wednesday, March 28, 2012. (I used this handy calculator found here if you need one!)

I will be filling you in on the progress once a month and we’ll see how it goes 🙂 Let me know in the comments if you have ever done one of these or hope to in the future!

1. Take at least one yoga class
2. Learn how to cook 5 new dishes
3. Bake my own bread 6 times
4. Walk the distance of the Appalachian trail
5. Graduate from my master’s program
6. Write a letter to 3 friends for no reason
7. Read 10 books for fun
8. Go to 3 movies by myself (I never do this)
9. Go to at least one concert
10. Write a blog post at least twice a month every month
11. Try to grow my own indoor herb garden
12. Update my progress on my 101 in 1001 every month
13. Be active for 30 minutes at least 3 days a week
14. Patronize local vendors at least 6 times a year
15. Visit the Joslyn Art Museum
16. Make my own yogurt
17. Lose 15% of my starting body weight
18. Go to 10 local restaurants I haven’t yet tried
19. Participate in one “walk” (eg. Crop Walk, Walk for a Cure, etc)
20. Donate blood 6 times
21. Create a recipe & post it on my blog
22. Spend 6 weekends without going online
23. Find a religious community I feel comfortable with
24. Attend that community every Sunday for a month
25. Track all my expenses for 2 months
26. Create a budget that reduces my current expenses and increases my savings
27. Buy an article of clothing or an accessory in a color I never normally would
28. Have a picnic
29. Spend 15 minutes in nature outside the city doing nothing but listening
30. Organize my digital world. My files are a complete mess!
31. Learn to make 4 new vegetarian or vegan recipes
32. Take the bus instead of the car 10 times
33. Pass on a few things I want and do a Kiva loan
34. Floss. Every day. No excuses.
35. Go for one week without complaining
36. Replace one household or toiletries product with a more eco-friendly option
37. Learn how to wax my eyebrows at home (Don’t judge :-p )
38. Make potstickers: see here userealbutter.com

Today would have been my last official day as an AmeriCorps*VISTA member. I have extended my term until the end of next month so I’m not done yet! I just can’t believe how fast the year went by.

It has been an amazing year. Full of new people, places, and experiences I never could have dreamed of. My term of service has had it’s ups and it’s downs but I wouldn’t trade it. I’ve gained so much real-world experience, confidence, and life-long friends.

I’ve had the opportunity to present at and attend numerous conferences and workshops, visit friends in Hawaii, and find a school to persue my future.

I’m just so grateful for the chances I’ve been presented with. I’m hoping that my last few weeks will be just as good as all the others!